Trying To Concieve

shelly

foreversomeday wrote: »

But BMI is such a ridiculously outdated way of diagnosing over/underweight status, and has never worked properly for women anyway.

You might think so but doctors still use it and whilst they use it, if you are under or over weight and have fertility issues they won't help you until you are at desired BMI for your height.

superstar_2

I may be able to clarify the weight issue. For women, they have more fat than men. Men need 3-4% of fat as the bare minimum to survive but on the other hand women need at least 10-12% of fat to survive. The fat metabolism in women is slightly different as oestrogen, which is the main female hormone together with progesterone does receive some stimulatory signals from fat, which is known as adipose tissue in medical terms. If you're too athletic or too underweight, your fat mass decreases, thus the signal changes to inhibitory as the body switches off your fertility cycle because it assumes you dont have enough energy to reproduce. That is why very atheletic women miss or dont get periods, thus missing fertility cycle. The same reason applies to girls who are 'fatter' tend to reach puberty much quicker than really thin girls. Hope that helps!

superstar_2

shelly wrote: »

You might think so but doctors still use it and whilst they use it, if you are under or over weight and have fertility issues they won't help you until you are at desired BMI for your height.

yep, we still use it for everyday practice because of three reasons - cheap, time-efficient and reasonably accurate.

There are many factors that can make your BMI inaccurate. It happens for men more often than women, because of the fat issue that i explained above. For men, the bulk of the weight tend to be muscle mass, so a well built men will have a BMI of 30 which classifies him as obese but he doesnt go as obese on our judgement as we relate techical + clinical judgement. Hope helps!

Chollita

Ok maybe going off the point slightly, but does anyone have any suggestions on how to gain weight?

butterfly72

I'm not TTC just yet.. but will start trying in the next few months hopefully! I'd like to 'prepare' myself and understand I should be taking Folic Acid, but not sure how much! Can too much be damaging? Also is there anything else that might help! I eat loads of vegtables, fruit and oily fish so feel I have a decent diet already.

Chollita wrote: »

does anyone have any suggestions on how to gain weight?

I'm also a tad underweight so I think a few extra pounds would be useful! Saying that my periods are regular as clockwork!

any pre TTC advise for a 35 year old!?!?!? Oh nearly forgot, anything the fella can be doing too!!!

ginvzt

butterfly72 wrote: »

I'm not TTC just yet.. but will start trying in the next few months hopefully! I'd like to 'prepare' myself and understand I should be taking Folic Acid, but not sure how much! Can too much be damaging? Also is there anything else that might help! I eat loads of vegtables, fruit and oily fish so feel I have a decent diet already.

any pre TTC advise for a 35 year old!?!?!? Oh nearly forgot, anything the fella can be doing too!!!

The suggestion is to take 400 mcg. If you go to boots, you will see folic acid packets with the vitamins. I am taking pregnacare and it contains the right amount. After taking it for just a couple weeks, I had a blood test done and my folic acid reading was out through the roof!!!! But doctor didn't say anything. If you are at risk that you baby can have spina bifida (problem with neural tube - usually if there is a history in family), it is suggested you take 5mg).

[Deleted User]

Chollita,

I had to gain weight to conceive my first. I am 5'4" and weighed 7 stone, I got my weight up to just under 8 stone and that was the month I conceived. I know that naturally my body functions best at about 8 stone. I did it by eating more carbohydrates and eating treats. I made sure my 3 main meals were healthy but added full fat things like milk, cheese, yoghurts and then if I wanted cake/puddings/hot choc I had them in between meals.

I felt it was important to eat well to provide the nutrients for conceiving but knew i wasn't going to gain by eating healthily alone. I am not a big eater and prefer little and often.

I also took pregnancare in the months prior to conceiving and supplemented that with zinc 15 mg as I read that can help a fertilised egg implant. DH was also on Wellman and zinc too, to boost his little guys.

I found it difficult to gain weight during pregnancy at at 30 weeks had only gained 3lbs. So I stopped work and rested a lot and overall gained 10lbs. However I lost that as soon as my son was born and more and found I didn't have the reserves to breast feed him. I lasted 2 weeks before I was back down to 7 stone again and feeling very unwell.

This time I am determined to do it differently I have gone back to eating more (sometimes DH isn't sure which dinner is his when I dish up) and my dietician has presribed a milkshake which I take daily. Its an easy 300 cals to get down and provide nutrition. I now weigh the same as I did when my son was born and still have 18 weeks to go. Hopefully this time it will be ok.

If you have any more questions please don't hesitate to ask, I am by no means an expert but I do believe you have to be healthy in order to conceive and have healthy eggs.

Bun

I have been quite slow to conceive (will be 37 when no2 arrives) and I found the three times I did conceive (one a miscarriage) that I was drinking little or no alcohol and was eating well. I know that some fall pregnant after a night on the wine but I think that regular or OTT drinking affects some people.
The last two I was also doing basal temping and found I was actually ovulating later than I thought so that was great. The oily fish is good but be a bit careful of the mercury alert ones - marlin and shark and fresh tuna etc, as they're not recommended for pregnancy I presume they could affect fertility too. Good luck.

KarmaPolice

frivolous_fay wrote: »

Height to weight ratio?

I'm 5'9'' and if I weighed 43kg (about 6 stone 10) I'd be three stone underweight... but at 5'2'', a chart picked from the net at random suggests Chollita's weight is perhaps just a stone too low.

This chart http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/logout/news_features/idealweight_w.htm
suggests a little under 8 stone would be a good weight at 5'2''

I understand the height/weight ratio, however as long as you are the correct weight for your height it shouldn't matter how short you are.

Amanda4242

Just curious as to what peoples opinions are on the 3 for £1 hpt's at poundland?? Be good to know as I'll be testing tomorrow, fingers crossed for a BFP!